Update on Knitting Projects

December 8, 2009| Lindy| 0 Comments | 9:45 am

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It’s been several days since my last post. I have been busy with Christmas preparations. Finally have all the Christmas decorating done and can now concentrate on finishing up my Christmas knitting projects. I have finished the Chevron Scarf — but since I had enough yarn leftover, I decided to knit a tam to go with the scarf. Here’s a picture:

ChevronTam1

I’m almost done, however, I’m not totally certain this item is going to turn into an actual tam. I’m following the basic instructions from EZ in Knitting without Tears, adjusting for gauge,etc. But still, when I put it on my head, it doesn’t look like a tam. I’m going to trust EZ and see what it looks like when washed and dried over a large dinner plate. 🙂

That leaves the Diamond Brocade patterned scarf for my DD to finish. I haven’t knit on this at all since before Thanksgiving, so as soon as I finish the tam, I will focus on getting this done.

DS has just requested new socks for Christmas. (Sigh…) He’s going to get two balls of yarn and a promise for a hand-knitted pair from me to come after Christmas.

I have placed the SFS socks in time out. The gusset on the darn things appears to have holes where I picked up stitches even though I knit through the back loops to make the stitches tighter. I think this is probably due to the extra stretchiness of the Regia stretch yarn. I’m going to have to frog back to the heel turn and start the gusset over. 🙁 I just can’t cope with this at the moment — hence the time out. Looks like January knitting will be baby items and socks!

1 thought on “Update on Knitting Projects”

Amanda says:

December 8, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Seems you are making progress on things, even if it is slow. I posted the link to how I did my Ravelry bars on my blog yesterday.

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And finally…The Third Hat: Beret in Bee StitchAnd finally…The Third Hat: Beret in Bee Stitch

As you know from my previous post, I have been side-tracked with switching to a new computer and then finding that my blog had been hacked. Well, I think I have recovered from the hack and I have all of my pictures and files transferred to my new computer — so, now to catch up and post about the third hat I started in January and finished in February.

My third hat is a beret knit in Bee Stitch.

This hat was also inspired by the thread about Hermione Granger’s hat in the Deathly Hallows, Part I, in the Harry Potter Lover’s group on Ravelry. Again, I think the beret is fairly close to the original hat.

Details: Hat was knit with Stitch Nation Full O’ Sheep (100% Peruvian Wool), using US Size 7 (4.5 mm) needles. This yarn is very soft, aran weight, though I did find it a bit splinty. The color is Passionfruit. Stitch Nation is manufactured by Red Heart (Coats & Clark).

When increasing for the beret, I basically doubled the number of stitches and it created a very slouchy beret, so if you’d like it a less slouchy, I’d only increase by 50%. I converted the Bee Stitch so I could knit it in the round and I wrote up the pattern to share with others, so here’s the link: Bee Stitch Beret.

To see my notes on Ravelry, use this link.

Hats for New GrandsonHats for New Grandson

My new baby grandson has a small head. This is a family trait, as both his father and paternal grandfather have small heads and this is always an issue when they are picking out new ball caps….

So, I have been making the little guy some smaller hats. I started out by checking on what the “newborn” head measurement is — which my references state is “14 – 15 inches”. I cast on the appropriate number of stitches for the gauge of the worsted weight baby yarn I was using — three rows in and I thought: “Too Big.”

After some experimenting, I got what looked like the right circumference and knit up a beanie type hat — one inch of 2 X 2 ribbing and then straight stockinette until the hat measured 3 1/2 inches. I used the standard K2tog decreasing to form the top of the hat. I guessed correctly, because the hat fit perfectly. The circumference of this first hat was 11.5 inches.

The new parents were impressed and asked me if I could knit up a few more in different colors so that they could use them to coordinate the baby’s outfits. Now, being a new grandma, I said, “Of course!” —

So — I knit 3 more hats — each one only took about 90 minutes to knit up and I varied them a little just so I wouldn’t get too bored with them. The bright green one and the baby blue one were knit using Berat Cottontots yarn and the aqua one was knit using double-stranded Baby Ull (Dale of Norway) washable wool.

BTW — I didn’t get a picture of the first hat — also knit with Bernat Cottentots yarn — but it was baby blue with a bright green stripe.

Stitch Pattern: The Trinity StitchStitch Pattern: The Trinity Stitch

I used the Trinity Stitch pattern for dishcloth # 6. This stitch pattern produces a lovely textured fabric and is relatively easy to do. It is also known as the Cluster Stitch or Bramble Stitch. The fabric produced has a “knobby” texture and would make a lovely scarf or hat. It could also be used as part of the textured patterning in an Aran style or Fisherman style sweater or as a panel mixed with other textured patterns in an afghan or shawl.

The pattern is a multiple of 4 stitches done over 4 rows:

Row 1: (Right side) – Purl
Row 2: *(K1, P1, K1) all in same stitch, P3tog. Repeat from * across.
Row 3: Purl
Row 4: *P3tog, (K1, P1, K1) all in the same stitch. Repeat from * across.
Repeat these 4 rows for the desired length of your fabric.

Reference: Barbara G. Walker, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns